Mark Zubro has written a lot23 books to be exact. His genre, mystery, isn't groundbreaking. However, the charactersself-affirming, happy gay couplesare. Since 1987 he's churned out nearly two dozen stories that have continuously broken the mold of the industry.
His newest book, Black and Blue and Pretty Dead Too, is the tenth in the Paul Turner series documenting the life of a gay cop. The mystery novel chronicles a murder at the Black and Blue Leather party, hosted in an abandoned train station. It's releasing this month.
Zubro has been writing about gay characters long before mainstream media had any sort of positive gay presence.
"Somebody once said to me, you know your books would really sell a lot better if you wrote straight characters," said Zubro. "That's probably true, I suppose. Books with straight characters tend to tell better than books with gay characters. Well, I can't write not from my imagination. I can only write from what my imagination says. "
The retired English teacher, a resident of Mokena, Ill., has a knack for developing plotsevident in the series of books he has written over the past two-plus decades. However, the plot is much thicker than some other series. Zubro mixes in his own personal flavor of activism, politics and a bit of personal revenge to many of the tales.
"There are a whole lot of women mystery writers I've met who said they wrote their first mystery to get back at their first husband," Zubro said. "In a lot of my books, I'm busy getting even with homophobic assholes. And it's kind of fun because I get a bit of chance then to get some of our own back, and to make them suffer. I probably should not admit to how much pleasure I take in that."
Writing can also be a form of catharsis for other issues, Zubro said. A former school union president, Zubro had a particularly stressful encounter with his district's superintendent.
"I was furious that night. I remember driving home that night, gripping the steering wheel, saying 'somebody's going to die tonight,'" Zubro said. "I got home, and I mowed a character or two down."
Of course, he mentions, you have to be sure the killings fit into the plot, but that's secondary when you're in a bad mood.
The Paul Turner series, presently 10 books deep, documents a happily partnered cop with two children. In his latest adventure, he and his work partner investigate a murder in the strangest of placesin the depths of an old, crumbling train station taken over by a leather party. Mystery comes into play when readers find out who was murdered, and begin to wonder how they ended up at a leather party. Chicago residents will particularly enjoy it, as it notes a bit of Chicago history and architecture, but it can be enjoyed by any reader, Chicagoan or not.
Aside from Paul Turner, Zubro has written a series, currently with 12 books, based on the character Tom Mason. This series launches Zubro's career as a writer, with the first book coming out in 1989.
Mason's life was intentionally great: He has a wonderful husband, great sex and great kids. This was intentional, Zubro said, as when he started writing books there was an utter absence of positive gay characters.
"[When I started the series] it was 1987, and back then your gay person was most likely suicidal," said Zubro. "If not suicidal, certainly depressed, the villain of the piece. They were some awful thing. And if they had to be a gay person, they certainly were not a happily gay-coupled gay person."
Zubro has also written several short stories, and has been nominated for and won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Mystery.
He's working on a few other projects as well- one's a mystery inspired by Wisconsin's Republican Governor and the issues that took place last winter. He's also working on two LGBT young-adult novels.
After writing so many plots, characters and full books, Zubro is still full of more ideas. The secret, he says, is to treat writing like a trip to the gym. The more you do it, the more mass is built to work with.
"One of the things that I learned a long time ago is, in fact, sitting your butt down night after night after night is way more important than anything," Zubro said. "What happens for me, it really is like going to the gym every day and working out. You're thinking about what you're doing. It's a habit. And yes, it's that very boring word discipline."
Black and Blue and Pretty Dead Too is being released in print and as an eBook this November. This and his other writings are available at independent bookstores throughout the Chicago, as well as printed on-demand and as eBooks. To stay updated on Mark's work, visit www.markzubro.com .